Candidate for ECan,
When ECan councillor Vicky Southworth proposed her Notice of Motion that ECan declare a nitrate emergency she did a good thing.
When the notice was passed albeit by the close margin of nine votes to seven, this was also a significant vote as for the first time Ngai Tahu elected to vote for present and future generations rather than for their short term corporate profits.
It was revealing that the councillors who have long had things there own way “spat the dummy” recognising that perhaps the days of a
While speaking to her motion, councillor Southward reminded Council that since 2009, the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, (CWMS), had allowed irrigation and dairying to advance unchecked despite the RMA and CWMS giving first priority to the environment and second priority to irrigation.
To my mind the counter arguments put up by McKay, McKenzie, Sunckell, and Ward are spurious. It has long been accepted that we do not yet have the science to manage nitrate leaching on Canterbury’s vulnerable porous science.
That side of the room know this and have consistently voted to hide the facts.
Through her six years as a councillor, Vicky Southward has had to fight to get ECan to warn rural well owners that there is a problem with nitrate in their water. She has had to fight to get ECan to do further monitoring of Central Canterbury wells. She has had enough and is not standing for
There are two other parts of councillor Southworth’s notice of motion;
The first is to call the ECan staff to a workshop to discuss the nitrate emergency with the new incoming councillors. What a great opportunity to learn from plans that have clearly not delivered and have a reset.
Finally the notice of motion calls for a polluter pays principle, giving relief to general ratepayers who not only have suffered the degradation of their freshwater, but have been made to pay for the (ineffective) pollution mitigation measures.
This sets the new council up to really make some progress on Canterbury’s freshwater crisis.
Minister Todd McLay, Federated Farmer’s Colin Hurst, and RMA reform minister Chris Bishop were unhelpful in attempting to pass off this emergency as “an electioneering gimmick” – simply politicians playing politics with an issue that for some may well be a matter of life or death.
Editor’s Footnote: A significant Danish study published in 2017 found a link between
How can Ministers and Federated Farmers be so cavalier about increasing the risk of bowel cancer? What if a family member got bowel cancer? Sorry to be so blunt, but the attitude is infuriating!
ECAN had been warned for decades about the nitrate risks posed by dairying on porous soils above unconfined aquifers. They chose to ignore those warnings, while paying lip service to the issue. In 2013 the Canterbury Medical Officer of Health said the nitrate problem was “like a supertanker heading for the rocks”. ECAN continued to ignore the warnings. Now, 12 years later, the supertanker has hit the rocks. If you live in Canterbury outside the Christchurch aquifer, don’t drink the water.
The link between nitrate levels greater than 3.7 mg/L and colorectal cancer was more than a “link”. It was a very high correlation. My own research has shown that for a family of four a filter to remedy this would cost over $2K per household and over $1k per year for fresh filters (refer articles previously published on NZFFA website). Who should pay?
It’s ironic that politicians McClay, Bishop plus Federated Farmers pass the nitrate issue off as “electioneering gimmicks.” They know all about electioneering gimmicks of course as do Labour and other parties in Parliament at election time.
Perhaps they need reminding of their hypocrisy and indifference to people’s health in 2026 – election year.
I haven’t forgotten Labour twice in 2017 and 2020 promised to reverse the decline in in rivers but did nothing. Hollow promises from hollow politicians?
It’s worth noting the work of Dr Peter Trolove over the last decade or so in sampling nitrate levels and drawing attention to it. He has been a tireless worker in this regard. Also that he has been funded by a voluntary organisation, the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers.
Both Dr Trolove and NZFFA deserve a big thanks. At least they care, if politicians are in denial.
Best wishes to Dr Trolove for the ECan elections.
‘the days of a self-interested farmer controlled council may be coming to an end’ – Peter we can only hope, it’s a sad state that’s reflected not only in Ecan, but the Govt too, we need a big systems wide shakeup where our elected officials get back to working for the people, not vested interests…